Looking back, part two

Steve Scott, Pittsburg State University president, may have best summarized how times have been for PSU athletics during recent months.

“We are garnering national attention,” Scott said. “It’s been pretty clear from the last year. What a year we’ve had. I kind of have to pinch myself every once in a while and say, ‘Did we really just have that year?’ And, we did. It’s a pretty amazing situation. But our students, our faculty, our coaches, community, all of us really share in the successes of this year.”

The Pitt State football team won the 2011 NCAA Division II National Championship last December and that great accomplishment seemed to carry over into all the other athletic programs in 2012.

In early January, Pitt State head football coach Tim Beck received the 2011 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year for Div. II. Beck dominated the fan-based voting from wire-to-wire at CoachoftheYear.com and he joins former PSU head coach Chuck Broyles in the permanent Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year display area in the College Football Hall of Fame at South Bend, Ind.

Beck later threw out the first pitch at a Kansas City Royals game.

The women’s basketball team made history — school record for wins in a season (27), most games played in a season (33), highest winning percentage (.820), most consecutive wins (14), most points in a single game (111), largest margin of victory (66), as well as the first, second and third NCAA Tournament victories in program history and the first-ever appearance in the Elite Eight. Pitt State lost to the eventual national champions, Shaw.

Freshman sensation Lizzy Jeronimus helped push an already solid Gorillas team over the top into one of the best eight teams in the nation. She led Pitt State with 522 points and 15.8 points per game with her career high of 35 points coming against Emporia State in the regional final. Jeronimus earned MIAA Freshman of the Year, South Central Regional MVP and honorable mention All-American honors.

Head coach Lane Lord won MIAA Coach of the Year and the WBCA/Russell Athletic Region 6 Coach of the Year for the Gorillas’ outstanding season.

Pittsburg native and St. Mary’s Colgan graduate Lisa Elmer won the Elite 89 award at the Elite Eight in San Antonio. Elmer, an accounting major, maintains a 4.0 GPA. Pitt State running back Eric Love won the award in football.

The men’s basketball took some positive steps forward in the conference tournament in early March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.

Seeded at No. 7, Pitt State made some noise by knocking off No. 2 Central Missouri 78-64 in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Northwest Missouri 56-53 in the semifinals, two of the three MIAA teams which shared the conference title during the regular season.

JaVon McGee returned home in style against Central Missouri, pouring in a game-high 25 points, and Eric Ray helped close out the stubborn Mules with 16 points. Marky Nolen scored 18 on Northwest Missouri. McGee, Ray and Nolen each made All-Tournament.

The Pitt State defense stymied both Central Missouri and Northwest Missouri — the Mules and the Bearcats shot a combined 35-for-105 (33 percent) against the Gorillas. Pitt State fell one win short of a NCAA Tournament spot, losing 67-63 to Washburn in the MIAA title game.

The youthful softball team made strides under first-year head coach Elizabeth Economon, highlighted by a school record-tying 15-game winning streak which helped Pitt State improve from 13-35 to 29-28.

Amanda DeCastro won MIAA Player of the Year for a season featuring sensational numbers like a .439 batting average, 42 runs scored, 69 hits, 16 doubles, three triples, 17 home runs, 55 RBI, 142 total bases, .904 slugging percentage, 12 walks and nine strikeouts, .482 on-base percentage and .922 fielding percentage. She established both records for single-season and career home runs, virtually reworking the Pitt State record book more in her image over her stellar career.

Pitt State displayed its potential during an early season tournament game against then No. 6-ranked Valdosta State. The Gorillas upset the Blazers, 4-3, for their first win of the season and the first under Economon.

The baseball program saw the passing of the old guard with the retirement of patriarch Steve Bever and the dawning of a new era with the hiring of new head coach Matt Murray.

Bever retired after 22 seasons as head coach and his career highlights include rebooting the Pitt State baseball program after a prolonged absence, over 500 career wins, an average of 34 wins from 1997-2002, a MIAA title in 1999 and four regional appearances (1997-1999, 2002), as well as seven DII All-Americans, 10 Academic All-Americans and 25 first-team All-MIAA players.

The Gorillas missed the postseason with their 20-28 overall record but showed flashes of promise when taking 3 of 4 from Washburn in March, splitting a four-game set with Emporia State in March (highlighted by a 23-10 win) and sweeping a four-game set from Northwest Missouri in April.

Murray beat out two other finalists (Daniel Esposito, Alan Ready) and more than 100 candidates for the much-coveted head coaching position.

The golf team placed fifth in the MIAA Championships at Paradise Pointe Golf Club in Smithville, Mo.

Cole Murrin finished seventh overall individually and Garrett Fowler made his second career ace, using a 5-iron on the par-3, 199-yard Hole No. 3.

Justice Valdivia, despite finishing 23rd in the MIAA Championships, earned All-MIAA honors and MIAA Freshman of the Year.

Pitt State finished in a tie for fourth in the eight-team MIAA standings.

Multiple track athletes — men and women — enjoyed great seasons.

Mike Beeler closed out his stellar Pitt State career by earning a spot as first-team Academic All-America and finishing national runner-up in the javelin. Beeler won his third MIAA title and recorded the second-best mark (235 feet, 8 inches) in school history during a home meet in April.

Heidi Smith made third-team Academic All-America and established two school records during her senior year — shot put (49-2) and hammer throw (184-2). She earned All-American honors twice by placing seventh place in the shot and the hammer at the National Championships in Pueblo, Colo.

Kiara Jones, a Pittsburg native, earned All-America honors in the triple jump with a third-place mark of 51-7.25 and Jeff Piepenbrink, John Talbert and Pittsburg native Keenan Soles also earned All-American status.

The Pitt State men won the MIAA Outdoor Championships, head coach Russ Jewett won MIAA Men’s Outdoor Coach of the Year and the South Central Region Men’s Coach of the Year, 15 athletes (men and women) qualified for the National Championships and 14 athletes earned All-Region honors.

During the indoor track season, Colbie Snyder (a Joplin native) finished national runner-up in the men’s pole vault. Additionally, Smith and Soles earned All-America.

With multiple construction projects going on this summer and seemingly every athletic program drawing high-caliber recruits, the present and the future both seem to look bright for Pitt State athletics.